


side effects

by brieflygorgeous



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Anxiety Symptoms, M/M, Mentions of Blood and Vomit, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 12:38:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19295923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brieflygorgeous/pseuds/brieflygorgeous
Summary: “Common side effects include nervousness, insomnia, nausea…”





	side effects

**Author's Note:**

> this is heavily based on side effects mv and my own take on it. i was not supposed to be writing fic (i am on finals month) but who the fuck cares right lmao  
> please do check the tags before reading. i promise there's nothing too graphic but if any of those is upsetting to you i advise you not to read this story.  
> also this is like...my second time writing a even vaguely science fiction/dystopia fic so if none of this sounds accurate it was half on purpose half improvising lol

 

 

 

 

 

“Common side effects include nervousness, insomnia, nausea…”

His leg is jittering. It’s a side effect from the last timeline he’s been to, one where they found a box of canned coffee abandoned by the road. They were well past their shelf life, but it was their ninth day on the road, the third without water. Against better judgement they risked for food poisoning.

Hyunjin can’t remember a single minute he wasn’t fully awake, drenched in sweat, heart pounding and leg jittering as Minho drove them into the night.

“...agitation, anxiety, sweating...”

They had to stop somewhere so Hyunjin could vomit the 4 cans he drank in less than an hour. Still he washed the foul taste away with more coffee, which only dug deeper the sulks in Felix’s forehead.

Hyunjin’s leg jitters faster thinking about him.

“...visual problems, psychosis, numbness, dizziness, headaches-”

It could have been that fight. That moment where Hyunjin’s mask slipped off and he grabbed Felix’s shoulder so he didn’t slip too deep into his. No one understood why was Hyunjin so anxious. No one could ever understand, really. None of them knew a single thing but that timeline. Hyunjin knew too many lives and the ways they all went wrong.

“Seungmin.”

Seungmin looks from the medical record in his hands to Hyunjin himself. Hyunjin is reminded of that one timeline they bumped into closed road fence after closed road fence, and all Seungmin did was collect evidence with his camera. What for, they would only know in the future, but that didn’t stop Hyunjin from taking out his frustration on Seungmin.

If Seungmin remembers the way Hyunjin pushed and yelled at him, he doesn’t show it on the neutral expectation of his silence. Perhaps he can’t remember, because that Seungmin and this Seungmin are not from the same timeline. He’s lost track of all these side effects from messing with so many timelines.

“I get it,” Hyunjin’s lips are dry and chapped. He licks them and still tastes that rotten coffee. “I get it, all of it. You’ve listed these symptoms a thousand times. Just send me back already.”

Seungmin grabs a device from the table beside him and points a scan flashlight towards Hyunjin. The device beeps. Seungmin frowns.

“...and weight loss.”

“What?”

“Weight loss,” Seungmin repeats, and the edge on his voice indicates Hyunjin will still lose precious minutes in this godforsaken laboratory instead of on his mission. “You’ve lost weight. Again.”

“You would too if you were on the road and had nothing to eat for days.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Seungmin tsks. “You’ve been traveling too much. We should send someone else.”

“No,” Hyunjin says. Shouts, judging by the way Seungmin’s shoulders jump and he takes a step back. “Just send me one more time. Just one more time. I need to find him.”

“He knows how to come back, Hyunjin. If he hasn’t then he’s still-”

“Lost. He’s lost. I need to find him.”

Seungmin doesn’t look convinced, but Hyunjin’s patience is wearing thin each second he isn’t on the road with the others. The controlled sterility inside the laboratory is deceiving. He has no idea what side effects all of his venturing into the past has brought to the future. He isn’t ready to know. Not when Felix isn’t there with him.

“Alright,” Seungmin grants and Hyunjin feels a hysterical kind of relief making his eyes water. “But we can’t be losing your sanity to this. When you find Felix tell him this is your last chance.”

Hyunjin nods, the firm grip he has on the key pendant around his neck loosening as his senses are pulled down, down, down.

 

 

.- -.-. - ..- .- .-.. .-.. -.-- / .. / .- --

 

 

The air smells acrid and humid like harsh chemicals. The nauseating swaying of the truck upsets his stomach, but Hyunjin holds it down. It’s raining, a first in all of the timelines he’s been through, which in normal conditions would be a blessing if the plastic sheet serving as a raincoat for the truck didn’t hiss in all of the places the rain touches it.

A trace of pinkish blood stains his hand when he uses it to contain a coughing fit. Seungmin won’t like this.

“Here,” Jeongin hands him a bottle of water, one of their last ones judging by the tense looks the others shoot him as Hyunjin downs half of it in one gulp.

Escaping City Jungle’s walls was an unanimous decision, but the road they took afterwards was not. The days would brew hostility between them in small doses of gone provisions, cutting down the fragile threads of their friendship. Hyunjin wonders if they’ll make it out alive this time. All of them.

Someone holds his knee to stop the jittering. It’s Felix, dark circles under his eyes, the freckles Hyunjin remembers loving so much now of a sickening color against the paleness of his skin. This is before their fight, before Felix walked away. He needs to keep Felix safe this time. This is his last chance.

Dusk brings both the sun and the rain down, and the full moon guides their path to nowhere, no headlights on. It could be the creeping nervousness of his jittering leg going all the way to his head, but Hyunjin swears he sees the glowing shadow of a second moon in the sky. He blinks the sweat from his eyes, and then it’s gone. His leg is jittering out of control.

Felix volunteers for the night drive and Hyunjin, sleepless, rides shotgun as the others fall asleep.

The pressure inside his skull is maddening, so Hyunjin barely bats an eye at the landscape. Felix has always been better with routes, anyway. He recreated a 3D model with the pictures Seungmin collected in the first timeline and dedicated every minute between their trips to memorizing it so they wouldn’t need a map. Seungmin insisted they brought one but Felix argued it was too risky. What would the others do if they found out Felix was purposely leading them somewhere? No, they had to make it do by themselves. Take the steering wheel by night and guide them back to safety in secrecy.

Sometimes it took them days to correct a bad ending.

Sometimes bad endings were all they had.

“Are we close?”

Hyunjin’s fickle memory can’t tell if the turn Felix takes into the woods is new territory or not. Perhaps it is a shortcut; the dense foliage could be a hiding. Perhaps Felix knows Hyunjin’s tongue has grown numb and dry and the jittering on his leg has taken over his entire body.

A few dizzying minutes pass before Felix parks in a clearing. Have they been here before?

“Hyunjin.”

In the pale moonlight, Felix’s eyes acquire a strange glint.

“Do you trust me?”

Hyunjin’s head hurt.

“It’s nine or none,” he repeats the words that have kept them together through all of these roads, the promise they’ve made before escaping City Jungle together as a whole group. The sanity slips through Hyunjin’s fingers each time they leap back in time, only to fail that promise. “Of course I trust you.”

“Then give me your key.”

Hyunjin stares at the hollowness around Felix’s neck, where the twin of his own key pendant should be. He doesn’t question it. He hands Felix his necklace.

Felix jumps out of the truck and Hyunjin follows him. He uses his hands to help muffle the eerie whistle of the front tire where Felix has stabbed it with Hyunjin’s key. The front part of the truck tips down slightly but it doesn’t shake the other boys awake.

“Take this,” Felix closes his hand over Hyunjin’s open palm. It’s a pill. “And when you see the bus, run.”

The pill scratches down the parched walls of his throat, but Hyunjin swallows it without complaint. The edges of his vision falter, and he needs to blink several times to convince himself he’s only imagining the way Felix’s image is glitching. He’s glitching. Or is it Hyunjin’s brain? The headache pounds his head.

Felix is walking away, but Hyunjin isn’t afraid.

This is their last chance.

They’re gonna make it, aren’t they?

“Remember.”

That’s Felix voice, but he’s gone. He’s gone?

Around Hyunjin there are only woods. Deep yellow woods.

His vision is blurring.

“Run to the bus.”

 

 

... -.-. .- .-. . -..

 

 

A light.

Or several.

An open field.

The sound of shoes hitting the ground.

Running. Running.

The bus. Is that the bus?

Hyunjin’s lungs burn.

Felix.

Where is Felix?

“Run!”

Chan screams and Hyunjin runs, runs, runs.

 

 

-.-. .- -. / .. / -.. --- / .. - ..--..

 

 

When Hyunjin wakes up, he’s lying on a field. Above him, the clear night sky shows a single full moon. He doesn’t know where he is, has no idea if this is somewhere in the future or in the past. His senses tell him nothing. All he knows is that his head hurts a little less than before.

“Hey buddy,” Chan crouches in front of him, and all of the others are there too. For once they’re not frowning or deep in repressed anger. They’re almost happy, with all of their serene smiles.

Felix's smile is the brightest.

Chan offers his hand to help Hyunjin stand.

“Let’s go.”

He doesn't know where they’re going but it’s a relief they’re going together. There’s no more weight around his neck. Maybe they’ve finally done it. Maybe this is how it ends.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Report: #0325

Year: 4419

 

The experiment has been forced to a halt by unexpected results. While the foreseen outcome of full retrieval of all nine subjects was likely to happen at trip #19, the subjects in question have gone missing. The signals from their tracking devices, also known as keys, have been turned off by unknown means. The last detected pulse came from an uncharted area of Yellow Wood, but no further evidence was found. The truck remains in there.

Present subjects have gone missing as well, probably caused by a loophole in time. All records and reports by subject Kim Seungmin have disappeared from our database, furthering the evidence of the loophole. We are currently taking the appropriate measures to find the subjects’ location in present time.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

\- .-- --- / .-. --- .- -.. ... / -.. .. ...- . .-. --. . -.. / .. -. / .- / -.-- . .-.. .-.. --- .-- / .-- --- --- -.. --..--

.- -. -.. / ... --- .-. .-. -.-- / .. / -.-. --- ..- .-.. -.. / -. --- - / - .-. .- ...- . .-.. / -... --- - ....

.- -. -.. / -... . / --- -. . / - .-. .- ...- . .-.. . .-. --..-- / .-.. --- -. --. / .. / ... - --- --- -..

.- -. -.. / .-.. --- --- -.- . -.. / -.. --- .-- -. / --- -. . / .- ... / ..-. .- .-. / .- ... / .. / -.-. --- ..- .-.. -..

\- --- / .-- .... . .-. . / .. - / -... . -. - / .. -. / - .... . / ..- -. -.. . .-. --. .-. --- .-- - ....

 

.. / ... .... .- .-.. .-.. / -... . / - . .-.. .-.. .. -. --. / - .... .. ... / .-- .. - .... / .- / ... .. --. ....

... --- -- . .-- .... . .-. . / .- --. . ... / .- -. -.. / .- --. . ... / .... . -. -.-. . ---...

\- .-- --- / .-. --- .- -.. ... / -.. .. ...- . .-. --. . -.. / .. -. / .- / .-- --- --- -.. --..-- / .- -. -.. / ..

.. / - --- --- -.- / - .... . / --- -. . / .-.. . ... ... / - .-. .- ...- . .-.. . -.. / -... -.-- --..--

.- -. -.. / - .... .- - / .... .- ... / -- .- -.. . / .- .-.. .-.. / - .... . / -.. .. ..-. ..-. . .-. . -. -.-. . .-.-.-

 

\-- -.-- / .... . .- -.. / .... ..- .-. - ...

 

..-. . .-.. .. -..-

 

..-. . .-.. .. -..- ..--..

  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

“Felix?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Did we make it?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> \- .... . / .-. --- .- -.. / -. --- - / - .- -.- . -. / -... -.-- / .-. --- -... . .-. - / ..-. .-. --- ... -
> 
> if this sounds anything like maze runner it was on purpose.


End file.
